Thursday, September 19, 2013

The British writer Philip Murray-Lawson interviews Michael Butterworth and tells me (and others) in an email:

Michael discusses the inspiration behind his early writing, the relevance of New Worlds, and his contributions to Emanations.

Both Murray-Lawson and Butterworth are contributors to Carter Kaplan's Emanations anthologies, whose Third Eye has recently been published, as I've already announced in a previous blog entry. As for New Worlds, that was a British Science fiction magazine published mostly in the years of the mid-twentieth century and which favored experimental writing. Anyway, here's the part of the interview by Murray-Lawson that concerns Emanations:

PML: How did you come across Dr Carter Kaplan and Emanations?

MB: I think Carter came across me, which is what is surprising about him, as to all intents and purposes I had stopped writing. He had been in touch with Savoy Books sporadically down the years, and one day about four years ago, I think some time in 2009, we each received a personalised post card -- David [Britton], myself, John Coulthart and Kris Guidio. He was canvassing material for Emanations. His card arrived at the right moment when I was attempting to find a new direction for myself.

PML: Do you see a direct link between New Worlds and Emanations?

MB: In a way, the Emanations series is an entirely unexpected continuation of the 'New Wave' spirit. Not in the true original sense, of course, which was the result of a conjunction of so many things that were happening at the time -- things that 'hadn't yet happened so they could', if you see what I mean, such as the 'happening' in the world of Michael Moorcock! But in the surreal stoical modernist post-modernist sea-of-post-post-modernism sense that Emanations has made its own. It is still resolutely declaring that there is an avant garde, and it seems happy to publish an increasingly wide range of writers wearing enquiring or experimental hats.

PML: How does your writing for New Worlds and Emanations compare?

MB: My early career writing for New Worlds -- and God it does seem a very long time ago now -- was still-born, because although it had made an impact at the time, I didn't find a way of capitalising on that. I now have the opportunity of putting into print the fiction and poetry I wrote in the 60s and 70s that I was pleased with but which never saw publication. Under the tutelage of the expert and surreal Dr Kaplan, to whom I am eternally grateful, these stories are now seeing the light of day.

Readers interested in the full interview can follow the link to Part One (soon to be followed by Part Two).

Meanwhile, I have been contacted -- along with others associated with Emanations -- by another British writer, Steve Aylett, who wants to publish a book with crowdfunder publishers Unbound on the subject of creative originality. He's titled the book Heart of the Original, so if you're interested in the topic, follow this link to learn more.

And I might as well put in a plug for my own novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, now advertised on Facebook and available at Amazon.

About Me

I am a professor at Ewha Womans University, where I teach composition, research writing, and cultural issues, including the occasional graduate seminar on Gnosticism and Johannine theology and the occasional undergraduate course on European history.
My doctorate is in history (U.C. Berkeley), with emphasis on religion and science. My thesis is on John's gospel and Gnosticism.
I also work as one-half of a translating team with my wife, and our most significant translation is Yi Kwang-su's novel The Soil, which was funded by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea.
I'm also an award-winning writer, and I recommend my novella, The Bottomless Bottle of Beer, to anyone interested.
I'm originally from the Arkansas Ozarks, but my academic career -- funded through doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g., Fulbright, Naumann, Lady Davis) -- has taken me through Texas, California, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and Israel and has landed me in Seoul, South Korea. I've also traveled to Mexico, visited much of Europe, including Moscow, and touched down briefly in a few East Asian countries.
Hence: "Gypsy Scholar."